The next major task on my list is to get the car sent out and stripped back to bare metal.
I plan on taking it somewhere to get it stripped and epoxy coated ... but I want ALL surfaces done ... outside, inside and underneath.
I'm currently shopping for a rotisserie so that I can achieve this.

Most of these businesses are currently closed for the Christmas break, but I plan on booking in mid-January when they reopen.Anyone dealt with "The Blast Factory" (in Coburg) before?
(I saw them on 'Resto My Ride' and they seem like a reasonable company.)

Anyhow ... before getting all of that done, there's a few pieces of the car I can definitely rip into.

I went to visit the guys at "East Coast Mustang and Camaro" last week to stock up on parts that I know I'll need.
Mostly bought items like stainless trim for front and rear windows ... plus brand new quarter window glass and so forth.
Amongst this, I bought a pair of cowl 'shoulder' pieces.

The cowl shoulders on my car have issues.
The right hand side shoulder was both rusty and accident damaged.
The left hand side should was simply rusty.

Here's the new pieces that I bought :

I decided to get my hands dirty and start removing the right hand side.
Before I started this I ordered myself a spot weld cutting tool (kit) from eBay :

What an absolute ripper! It made light work of the spot welds and made my task so much easier.

Here's what I started with :

I removed the 'outer' section of the shoulder first, using a combination of the spot weld cutter, a 4" angle grinder (with cut off wheel) and a small cold chisel.
I have an air chisel but haven't found the need to use it just yet.

This piece was fairly easy going, mostly because it was so damn rusty and just fell to pieces!

The remaining steel took me a lot longer to rip out ... but I got there.
Thankfully the steel underneath is in quite good shape and (I think) will come up nicely after blasting and a bit of treatment.

After a bit of messing around, all of my brake calipers have finally arrived.

I had a full set of C6 Z06 calipers on order with Summit, but they kept having trouble getting the fronts.
After getting another email saying they'd be delayed again until (at least) mid April this year ... I cancelled half of my order.
I must say ... Summit were great to deal with on this matter. I asked them to send me the rear calipers (which they had waiting in stock) as soon as possible and to give me a 'store credit' in return for cancellation on the fronts.
My rear calipers from Summit turned up about 3 business days later and they gave me a full refund for the fronts. Very happy.

This however, left me stuck without front calipers.
As (extremely good) luck would have it though ... a pair popped up on eBay for considerably less money, still brand new, including pads and pins, plus they were located in Melbourne!
A few clicks later they were mine and they arrived 2 days later.

So here they are ... still wearing factory silver and Corvette decals ...

Following on from the previous days work ... I thought I should return briefly to the right hand cowl shoulder (area).

Due to the accident damage ... most of which was easily removed ... there was still a bit of bent metal that needed attention.
Bearing in mind that I have absolutely no training or skills in this area ... I gave it a crack with a hammer and dolly.

Came up straight enough (I reckon) to get the new panel welded back into place ...

I mentioned a few posts back that I was wanting to have a crack at doing my own (sheet metal) dash insert.

To start off ... I went out and bought myself a nice big sheet of cold rolled steel.
Ended up buying a sheet of 1mm CRS, measuring 2400x1200, for a mere $40.
That should give me plenty of material to play with!

Next on the list was something to bend it with.
I shopped around and found a cheap bending brake for sale via the Supercheap online store.
Picked one up for $133 including delivery.

First step was to take my cardboard template and transfer all of the measurements to steel.

After cutting out the basic shape (with a fine cut-off wheel in an angle grinder) I christened my new bending brake with the first few bends.

After a bit of shuffling and mucking around to get the bends done on the shorter section of steel ... I used some broad nosed vice clamps to manipulate the top edge a little.

With a little gentle persuasion I got the new piece into position in the car.
So far so good ... but the hard bits are still to come.

Here's how it sits at the moment ...

Next steps will be to have a crack at both end pieces ... then if I get those right ... have a go at welding the bits together.

Note that when ordering these gauges, they are completely customisable!
You can choose from a wide range of colors, styles, fonts, logos and lighting effects ... including supplying your own images/fonts if you like.
Since I'm aiming for a clean, minimalist look to my dash ... and hopefully something that won't date quickly ... I went fairly conservative.

So here's what else you get in the box (besides stickers and even a T-Shirt):

It's basically a whole bunch of bags containing every single wire, adapter and plug that you could possible think of ... so that the guage kit can be successfully installed.

Seriously happy with the quality of this kit.

I'll really have to work hard now and make sure that my dash insert is worthy of housing such fine quality

I've been speaking directly with Tobin at KORE3 in the US, who supply kits for this.

I will be using this kit for the fronts.
Makes use of GM (disc) or RideTech spindles.

I will be using this kit for the rear.
I'll be running a 9" with torino bearings.

In my case ... I already have the calipers.
The pads and discs I'll source locally.
Therefore I just need their hubs, brackets and lines.

All up will be about $570USD and $770USD (plus shipping) for these parts.

There's definitely other options available from the likes of CPP, Wilwood and even 'Hoppers Stoppers' ... but for me, having the ability to use some GM stock that's also ADR compliant (calipers were manufactured in Australia by PBR and have 'dust booted' pistons) was a big factor.